Dispatch #80 White Lesbian Age 68 Considers RBG, Women's Human Rights, 44 Days to Elections 2020

September 20th 2020

Day1413 Post-Ascendency of White Supremacy & Misogyny 

Day 1340 Post-Installation of White-Supremacist-Misogynist-Pussy-Grabbing-Self-Aggrandizing-Demagogic-Bully-Illegitimate-PeeeOTUS & his White-Nationalist-Fascistic-Christian-Supremacist-Quislings

One Thousand Four Hundred and Thirteen Days since the majority of white Americans chose white supremacy and misogyny rather than elect a woman President.  We cannot forget how the toxic foundation of America enabled fascism and hate to rule. 

Forty-four days until November 3^rd Election Day 2020. We must elect Democrats up and down the ballot without exception NOW. Then we return to work for Justice & Equity.  

We were sure that she would stay alive, she had fought and prevailed so many times, small in stature, but mighty and fearless, undaunted and relentless in her pursuit to establish equal rights for women and insist on values of justice, so determined to protect the Court. 

The majority of women alive today cannot imagine the circumstances facing RBG when, as a Columbia Law Graduate tied for first in her class in 1959, the only jobs available to her were secretarial.  Her life’s work and ascendency to the Supreme Court in 1993 as only the second woman after Sandra Day O’Connor represented a time when progress on women’s equal rights began to seem possible.  A time when the Supreme Court could still be viewed as a place for rulings that might challenge and indeed dismantle institutional oppressions.

Perhaps this is why so many of us are weeping and inconsolable, more than because RGB’s passing feels like such a heart-rending loss, but also, because the horrific and nauseating spectacle presented by the PeeeOTUS and his Quislings-Collaborators ready to replace RGB with Christian-supremacist-Phyllis-Schlafly-clone is a gut-punch. A stark reminder of how fascism, Christian-nationalism and misogyny have become so normalized in America.  

Instead of abortion rights, we must demand that public discourse call out the threats to women’s human rights, and identify reproductive justice as central to these rights.  We must vigorously reject abortion rights language because we see that this language reflects the Christian-supremacist position that religion ought to subvert women’s human rights. 

I have written 80 Dispatches from the War on Women, my first Dispatch penned One Thousand Four Hundred and Nine Days since the majority of white Americans chose white supremacy and misogyny. On that day, November 12^th 2016, I quoted words from Makani Themba-Nixon (https://highergroundstrategies.net/leadership/) that are exactly relevant today One Thousand Four Hundred and Thirteen Days later:

I think it's important to remember that the majority has not spoken. This takeover was only made possible by the systematic suppression, repression, depression and oppression of our communities by rule of law and force…. This is not a messaging problem. It is about confronting/replacing the interlocking systems of white supremacy, patriarchy and capital with new, interrelated systems of love, respect and justice. Let's begin by recognizing that if we don't change the rules, if we don't redistribute resources, whatever rhetoric gets developed will only catch in places for moments and slip away.

We have yet to replace the interlocking systems of white supremacy, patriarchy and capital.  Although not sufficient, winning local, state and federal elections in November is a critical step.  Until then, my time will be dedicated to getting out the vote.  I look forward to my next Dispatch being celebratory, the Goddesses willing.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that…Do not focus there…We are needed, that is all we can know…Do not lose heart, we were made for these times.

-Clarissa Pinkola Estés